The Turkish Ministry of Education introduced tablets to be used in the classrooms and every student will have an e-pad (Ipad) tablet at the end of the piloting which is in 2015.
A very interesting question, because I have been experimenting on this for a few weeks. To start with, since they are all addicted to Facebook, I created a Facebook page to discuss Communication Theory and it met with an immediate failure, because all they did was 'Like' the page. :)
So I started a blog and made it compulsory for them to comment on a topic that I put up. The response (probably because it was compulsory) was good. But more than the responses on the blog, I was pleasantly surprised to find my students actively discussing the topics amongst themselves, and more pleasantly surprised when they challenged me on some of my posts, contradicting, arguing and we all generally ended up having good and healthy discussions and occasionally some good verbal duels. This also resulted in overall better performance in examinations and some answers were thought provoking.
Here are the links:
http://www.facebook.com/CommunicationAndMediaTheories
http://comm-theories.blogspot.in/
This semester (Course: Media Effects Research), starting two days from now, I have decided to be a little bolder. This is what I plan to do:
1. NOT give away my presentations at the beginning of the semester. Instead, ask them to make the presentations for me, each group of students making a presentation by thoroughly studying the topic allotted to them. I use their presentation to discuss the topic.
2. At the end of the lecture, they create probable questions on the topic, which they put up on a blog from their mobile devices. These questions become a part of the question bank which will be used for their examinations.
3. The next day, before the lecture, all other students appear for a short online test, using some of these questions, which the concerned group will later assess with comments. The results will be available online on their tablets. In India, all students can not afford tablets; they will answer the questions on the answer books provided.
4. I am also creating an app which the students will be able to download and use for revisions. This app will be updated after every lecture. The content for the app too, will be created by the student groups.
5. I am also going to revive the Facebook experiment.
6. They also design their own assignments and use their mobile devices to upload the data. I am creating online forms and interfaces.
I have some more things in mind, but will wait to see the results of these experiments before implementing them. I hope this will encourage them to gain knowledge, apart from earning marks.
Any more ideas?
Motivation only allows students to do (to the best of their ability) what they can already do! So...be sure they know how to use the ipad proficiently. If not, first step is to provide direct instruction on its use. Subsequently, faculty can model in class how to appropriately use the ipad (or for matters related to a course). Integrate the use of the ipad into a course assignment (although this moves away from "self motivate"...because it is mandatory). If you do not feel all students are ready for mandatory use, give early adopters a chance to demonstrate how they use it...to the other students! Their enthusiasm will be contagious. I have found that when a person sees the value of what a piece of technology or software/app can do for them, they continue to use it. For example, people who need to wear glasses all day...usually wear them all day.
Many thanks Barbara!
Even though my students have not had any proper training, they are now able to use the ipad tablets very well. There are still lots of issues to be considered and problems to be solved to use the tablet effectively so that students can take some sort of responsibility for their learning. Teachers should start consider their role in this technology enhanced environment, for example.
We teach in medical school and have a blog on blackboard for the group of students in an 8 week clinical attachment in Family Medicine. We initially used wordpress. Students have an e-portfolio which contributes 30% to summative mark. They post reflective pieces, prescriptions and have to critique the prescriptions. We guide students with feedback and attempt to help with critical and clinical reasoning. We cannot have direct f2f supervision in clinics of all students so we do SOAP case reviews on the blog. Students do not post any identification detail of patients so it remains confidential. Twice a week students have f2f case presentations in groups and post their EBM resources on the blog for peers to share. We find that the interactive group learning activity stimulates learning.
Kasim, I believe that giving students engaging activities is what works the best. Trying to build projects that are significative for them and in which they can be involved taking decisions and generating content really motivates students,
Two months ago we made a survey in which we asked high school students about what they thought would be a good class; the answers were about being active at class, having high interaction with the teacher and among students and attending real life problems. In this sense, I believe e-tablets are perfect for enabling these activities.
We should try to "gemify" their education, e.g. with serious games on their i-PADs. Thus, the students get another motivation to learn by playing in their leisure time. This is not my original idea, but of Adrian Raudaschl and h s gamification of medical education.
Many thanks Andri, Larisa and Daniel.
Larisa, this is what I am doing with my students. We have agreed on the topics they like and they have done lost of engaging activities both in-and-outside the class and they love it. It is very important to relate the their learning to the real life experience which motivates the learner.
Many thanks
Students reflecting on real life experiences contribute to our addressing professionalism in the curriculum. In the past week students interactively discussed on their blog about 'whistle blowing' and the obligation or responsibility of colleagues to report or notify unethical behavior. This prompted students to access the General Medical Council website and guided them to a document discussing the responsibilities of medical students and professional behavior. These portfolio entries are then assessed using an assessment grid which are available to students to guide them on the different levels of reflection. Level 1 would be basic noticing, level 2 analysing the problem and level 3 would include the way forward or solutions to the question which prompted the noticing. If anybody is interested we could share the assessment criteria.
Hello everybody.
Do you use Moodle, skype or your own site for e-schooling? What about validating results of self-educating?
skype: elikabg
The iPad will change education forever these 10 ways:
1- Students automatically have updated information on these e-textbooks or electronic textbooks.
2- Promotes active and participatory learning. As ebooks are static, the iPad is interactive, integrating music, video, Internet.
3- You can promote personalized learning.
4- Its price means more access. They think they are more competitive in price than many portable and can eliminate paper texts.
5- It offers option tools without multitasking. Instead of negative clnsiderarlo believe that is an advantage for education because it increases their simplicity and can be controlled by teachers.
6- Bring mobility to education, without carrying books to do homework or to work seamlessly in any environment, teacher's dream.
7- It revolutionizes content distribution. Students have unlimited posibilitades for educational content. Teachers are experimenting with apps, ebooks, games, databases for content distribution.
8-It promotes social ineracción during learning. One advantage, especially for distance learners, with direct access to reference tools.
9- Can boost productivity and organization. With apps like Blackboard, GoClass and others can develop an interactive approach to online education.
10- Open to students at a global learning community.
With the iPad used in education, we can consider some applications:
1. Applications for classroom management and organization
In this category include Wunderlist as an effective manager and TeacherPal tasks and reminders, ClassTime Schedule and Bento to manage information related to the students.
2. Applications to take and sort notes
In this category include NoteShelf to write notes with your finger or stylus, iAWriter written especially for long typing, GoodReader to stop printing PDF documents and read them anywhere and finally to classify Evernote notes, photos and web pages.
3. Multimedia Applications
In this category highlight Pages, Numbers and Keynote as replacing Microsoft suite to create the most beautiful documents, graphics and presentations. Splice can also help if you make video montages often or Caster Free if you are fond of podcasts.
4. Applications for Brainstorming
This category highlights Popplet and Idea Sketch for simple mind maps and diagrams, iThoughts HD to create more complex analysis (eg SWOT) esborzar iDraft for ideas and drawings, Corkulous for visualizing ideas (eg design thinking).
More and more schools that integrate the iPad as a daily working tool, either on a 1:1 model or a mobile classroom iPads. This is due to a set of educational potential offered by this device, among which include:
1- Simplicity of use. The iPad is a tool that from an early age to seniors with little competition know how to use digital. It's simple, fast and intuitive. Each person or student can give specific uses depending on your needs and interests.
2- Reading textbooks enriched. From the combination of digital books and iPad reader interaction, generate a form of exploration as novel written content as interesting. The degree of interaction and motivation of the students in this format, provides a significant improvement in reading comprehension.
3- Adapting to different learning environments. As mobile connectivity by wi-fi / 3G and about 10 hours debatería, the iPad does not limit its use to the types of spaces, or different educational levels. A preschool classroom a university classroom, a workshop, a library, a bus, a yard, etc.. You can learn anywhere.
4- Synchronization cloud. Technology trends indicate that more and more shall be a form of accommodation cloud-based content, a trend that has already adopted the iPad, ahead of its time.
5- About 100,000 applications and counting. The volume generated for iPad applications is unmatched. An estimated 3500 have been designed specifically for educational purposes. Learning forms multiply, diversify and adapt to facilitate the difficult task of adapting learning student diversity.
6- Collaborative work. Today it is essential that students acquire competency in collaborative work, as required by current work environments and the complexity of the problems our society is facing. In this sense, the iPad connectivity forms and a large number of applications, allow collaborative work to develop ways of quality.
7- Lifelong Learning. Understood as a learning process the student starring, constructive, meaningful and collaborative. A long process of life largely by the demands of a changing world. A process is not limited by space or teachers, but student motivation and good tools, like the iPad, which facilitate access to knowledge and personal growth.
Currently the use of iPads in the classrooms of schools in the United States, has become a tool. Using iPad in the educational model is leading to think if it has been sufficiently beneficial for both students and teachers in improving global education.
And the examples of educational improvement thanks to IPAD various examples begin to appear, eg a chemistry teacher never managed to reach their students the subject of chemistry, until he added an iPad to their curriculum. The teachers, struggled for years to explain complex chemical equations on the board, which always ended with bored students.
This changed when adding animation and interactive media to their curriculum in general chemistry. Suddenly, he saw the faces of the students are lit for the explanations of the agenda.
This is just one example of many, where the tablets are reinventing students and teachers, and begins to interact with educational material.
Teachers now begin to assess and monitor more easily the evolution of students at a time when many schools are understaffed and begins to cause excessive class sizes. Today millions of students from both primary school and university around the world are using iPads to understand difficult concepts through lessons with videos, animations, interactive widgets.
"In the switch to digital, not just to replace textbooks, but to invent new ways of learning." Some educational applications that are being developed for iPad is about learning a whole new way, and that's exciting. "But this educational revolution has occurred because at present the use of iPad for learning is no longer the niche minority that was a couple of years ago when a handful of pioneers were using the iPad in the classroom and possibly end up crossing out of "gurus, geeks or Illuminati".
At present schools and teachers are embracing technology by leaps and bounds. According to various studies:
43% of students already performing tasks using the tablets in the classroom.
35% of teachers in the U.S. have a tablet or e-reader in its class, when a year ago was 20%
Apple sold 8 million iPads in schools and educational institutions around the world of which 4.5 million were sold in USA.
But not everything would be benefits like all technology that is penetrating leaps and bounds in the various groups, the proliferation of tablets is occurring in those schools and students with limited financial resources can not access them, and therefore students and institutions low income or cash flow problems may be falling behind, creating a new Breakthrough Technology.
I have learnt that simple tools and rich practises (Roschelle, 2002) work best. In practise, it does mean that instructional design is much more important than technology itself.
I have published an article about our approach in higher-education context. We coupled spesific learning activities with different mobile / social media tools in order to ensure learning to happen.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233926689_Supporting_small-group_learning_using_multiple_Web_2.0_tools_A_case_study_in_the_higher_education_context
Article Supporting small-group learning using multiple Web 2.0 tools...
